Agricultural Air Quality Issues and Needs for the States

1. Agricultural Air Quality Issues and Needs for the States Arkansas Louisiana New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

2. Ag. Air Quality Issues Arkansas Burning of rice and wheat stubble (odor, visibility/haze, health risks) Odors from animal waste management systems (dairy, swine, and poultry) Dust from normal farming operations (visibility/haze, health risks)

3. Ag. Air Quality Needs Arkansas • More information, better able to define the Air Quality and Agriculture issue • How do we capture/quantify benefits of what we are doing now (conservation practices) • More knowledge for specialists in the field to be able to quantify air quality-if it is important enough to put in program, how do we quantify it (tools)

4. Agriculture Air Quality Issues Louisiana • Attempting to address air quality issues at the national level • with little or no scientific data or with little consideration for • NRCS planning policies. • National focus on an Atmospheric Resource Management • conservation practice standard rather than regarding air • as part of a SWAPA resource management system. • Assuming that all states have air quality concerns similar to • Arizona and California. Air quality concerns should be • addressed at the state level based on site specific considerations

5. Agriculture Air Quality Needs Louisiana • Develop BMPs similar to water BMPs • Develop air quality concern assessment tool • similar to the Stream Visual Assessment Protocol • Design an Air Quality Resource Management Training • Program for NRCS personnel and agriculture producers • in cooperation with Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service • and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality

6. Ag. Air Quality Issues New Mexico Prescribed Burning of pecan piles (Nov. through March), pasture rangeland and cropland field ditches, wheat residue Wind Erosion from farmers doing tillage operations, dirt roads, overgrazing Odors from CAFO operations (dairy and poultry) Hydrogen sulfide fumes from oilfields

7. Ag. Air Quality Needs New Mexico • Monitoring data and problem analysis to better determine problems and causes, better define airsheds • Prescribed Burning Course for producers, including air quality aspects and alternatives to burning • Smoke Management Plan being developed in NM, including regional coordination

8. Ag. Air Quality Needs New Mexico • Funding sources to provide research, demonstrations, programs, workshops on, incentives for practices which improve air quality • Provide training for employees and producers on latest economically feasible technologies and practices in all aspects of agricultural air quality

9. Ag. Air Quality NeedsNew Mexico • Public information campaign in English and Spanish for targeted audiences on practices for improving air quality from ag and all sources • Promote development of airshed networks or utilization of watershed networks to better coordinate on soil, water, air, plant and animal resources

10. Ag. Air Quality Issues Oklahoma Lack of ability to measure and quantify air quality Waste facility odors (how do we deal with them) Particulate matter from field operations

11. Ag. Air Quality Needs Oklahoma • Increased awareness of the air quality issue. (understanding, quantifying, measuring) • Where do we need to go? • Where do we need to be?

12. Agriculture Air Quality Issues -Texas New conservation practices standards addressing air quality issues, and selection criteria for new applications under existing practice standards are being developed before supporting research and design procedures are available. In the rush to develop new technical standards, new conservation practices or applications might address an immediate concern while causing a new unforeseen concern (addressing dust control might cause a new problem by increasing ammonia emissions).

13. Ag. Air Quality Needs Texas • More research on BMPs and standards • More understanding between interaction of AQ issues (address one, impact another) • More information on what is being done in area AQ research (down to the field level) • Guidance on what direction we need to move toward (there is an emphasis, but what do we do)

14. Ag. Air Quality Issues Summary Burning Odors (CAFO/oilfields) Dust More scientific data to support planning policies Lack of ability to measure and quantify AQ

15. Ag. Air Quality Issues Summary Standards before adequate research Lack of understand of interactions of conservation practices

16. Ag. Air Quality Needs Summary More information, better definition of AQ and Agriculture issue Ability to quantify and measure Ability to capture benefits of conservation practices More knowledge in the field Develop BMP

17. Ag. Air Quality Needs Summary Assessment tools Training program to address AQ for NRCS field employees and producers (burning etc.) Coordinated regional plans (smoke management) Funding for more research/demonstrations/workshops

18. Ag. Air Quality Needs Summary Guidance on where we need to go, where to we need to be concerning the AQ issue. Better understanding of interactions in conservation practices dealing with AQ WHAT DO WE DO???